The UK’s “American” university has significantly reduced tuition fees for students from the US in a bid to offer “more transparency and greater value for money”.
The sticker price paid by US students for undergraduate degrees at Richmond, the American International University in London is currently $38,000 (£33,000) annually, compared with £9,250 for UK students and £14,750 for other international students.
The institution said that from autumn 2023 tuition fees for all overseas learners, including those from the US, would be set at £14,900.
Richmond, which recently moved to a new campus in Chiswick Park, west London, is the only British university that offers all students the chance to graduate with US and UK degrees. Its undergraduate courses are based on a four-year, US-style liberal arts model.
The university said that the aim of the shift, combined with its scholarship offers, was to make studying at Richmond “accessible to more US students”.
“This major shift in our pricing strategy for US students has been made in response to calls within the US higher education sector for more transparency and greater value for money from universities in their offer for students. I am delighted to see the university take a lead here,” said William Durden, chair of Richmond’s trustees.
The move comes after sterling plunged to a record low against the dollar in the wake of former prime minister Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget.
And it follows a turbulent period for Richmond, which was forced to suspend recruitment for its January 2020 intake after failing to secure alternative funding after the death of its founder, Sir Cyril Taylor, in 2018. It continued to teach continuing students and resumed recruitment later that year.
